3  W £<?*&.  9tu<J' 


*+ 


Ed  -Vniss 

1 1  i  ^  Ol^, 


** 


J\  message  front  the  Smiths 


A  MESSAGE  FROM  THE  SMITHS 


OR 


TEACHING  IN  THE  GOVERNMENT 
SCHOOLS  OF  JAPAN 


— BY— 


P.  A.  Smith,  U.  of  I.,  ’01 
Hiroshima,  Japan 

AND 

Roy  Smith,  U.  of  I.,  ’02 
Chofu,  Japan 


WITH  PERSONAL  LETTERS  USED  AS 
INTRODUCTION,  NOTES  AND  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PUBLISHED  BY  THE 

Young  Men’s  Christian  Association 

OF  THE  UnIYHRSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

—  1  90  4  — 


PRESENTED 
To  the  college  friends  of  the 
Smiths  and  to  others  who  are 
interested  in  their  work. 


3 


INTRODUCTION 

(/}  Persona I  Letter) 


Chofu,  Nagato,  Japan, 
April  7,  1904. 

Dear  Conard: 

We  have  both  been  writing-  more  or  less, 
ever  since  we  have  been  here,  about  our  work 
and  its  opportunities,  but  there  are,  just 
now,  three  or  four  especial  reasons  why 
we  want  to  make  this  joint  effort  to  bring-  the 
field  of  the  government  teacher  in  Japan  be¬ 
fore  the  men  of  the  University  of  Illinois. 

In  the  first  place,  we  have  been  here  long 
enough  to  realize  the  opportunities  and  the 
needs  of  this  field.  We  have  worked  in  it 
ourselves  and  feel  that  we  are  now,  perhaps, 
better  able  to  judge  of  these  things  than  even 
the  Association  Secretaries  who  have  the 
work  in  charge.  The  need  of  such  teachers 
is  felt  all  over  the  country,  both  by  the  mis¬ 
sionaries  and  by  the  Japanese  themselves. 
The  very  fact  that  the  educational  officials 
have  asked  the  Young  Men’s  Christian  Asso¬ 
ciation  to  furnish  them  with  foreign  teachers, 

5 


preferably  Americans,  shows  that  the  lives 
which  the  Christian  men  live  is  appreciated 
by  the  Japanese,  even  though  they  themselves 
may  not  be  Christians.  In  most  cases,  the 
officials  have  said  that  they  prefer  Christian 
men.  The  missionaries  testify  to  the  value 
of  the  life  of  a  Christian  layman  .among  the 
students,  and  in  some  cases  have  even  taken 
the  positions  themselves  for  a  time  in  order  to 
get  a  hold  on  the  students  and  to  hold  the 
positions  until  Christian  men  could  be  se¬ 
cured,  rather  than  to  have  the  places  filled  by 
men  not  active  in  Christian  work. 

Just  at  the  present  time  there  seems  to  be 
a  very  pressing  need  for  more  men.  Fisher, 
the  International  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Secretary  who 
has  had  charge  of  this  work,  told  us  the  other 
day  that  six  new  men  were  wanted  before  next 
September,  some  of  them  very  soon.  If  the 
men  do  not  come  this  summer,  some  of  these 
positions  will  probably  be  filled  by  other  men, 
whose  lives  will  be  anything  but  a  help  to  the 
students  under  them,  and  not  only  not  a  help, 
but  a  decided  hindrance  to  the  Christian  work 
in  the  community. 

Lastly,  we  feel  that  back  at  the  old  Univer¬ 
sity  of  Illinois  there  must  be  some  men  of  abil¬ 
ity  and  strength  to  whom  this  work  would 
appeal  very  strongly  if  they  only  knew  more 
of  it  and  of  the  immediate  need  for  men. 
Just  now  men  are  deciding  their  next  year’s 
work,  and  we  want  to  present  this  phase  of 
it  to  them.  Moreover,  G.  M.  Fisher  is  to 
start  for  the  United  States  on  his  furlough, 
April  sixteenth,  and  will  be  within  far  more 

6 


easy  reach  than  when  here  in  Japan,  and 
can  tell  much  more  definitely  of  the  work 
than  any  man  who  has  never  been  here. 

Our  hope  in  writing-  this  is  that  it  may  help 
to  bring  this  work  before  the  men  in  such  a 
way  that  some  of  them  shall  decide  to  take  it 
up  either  immediately,  or  in  the  future,  and 
help  to  supply  this  pressing  need  for  more 
men,  strong  men,  Christian  men,  that  is  so 
evident  to  all  of  us  here. 

The  opportunities  for  Christian  work  in  the 
government  schools  can  hardly  be  overes¬ 
timated.  First  of  all,  one’s  work  is  among 
students;  and  in  Japan,  even  more  than  in 
America,  the  students  are  the  men  who  are 
influencing  the  nation.  Out  of  these  govern¬ 
ment  schools  are  coming  the  men  who  are 
taking  the  lead  in  the  Japanese  army  and 
navy,  in  political  circles  and  in  business. 
And  then  a  teacher  has  a  prestige,  not  only 
among  the  students  and  teachers,  but  among 
all  the  Japanese  people  that  few  missionaries 
have.  He  comes  as  a  teacher  of  English  in 
the  employ  of  the  government,  and  not  as  a 
teacher  of  a  foreign  religion.  The  opportu¬ 
nity  for  doing  direct  Christian  work  is  large. 
The  members  in  Bible  classes  are  sometimes 
not  large*;  but  the  men  who  attend  are  usual- 

*“I  have  just  come  home  from  my  Bible  class— I  had  thir¬ 
ty-two  at  the  class,  which  is  about  the  usual  number.” 
— From  letter  of  November  25,  1903,  from  P.  A.  S. 

Soon  after  Roy  began  his  work  he  bad  three  Bible 
classes,  one  among  the  teachers,  one  among  the  stu¬ 
dents,  and  one  in  the  Presbterian  mission. 

”Our  men  now  teach  the  Bible  in  their  homes  to 
over  300  men  a  week.  "—From  letter  of  December  1,1903, 
from  Galen  M.  Fisher. 


7 


ly  the  best  students.  Even  though  a  large 
number  of  them  begin  the  study,  perhaps  en¬ 
tirely,  for  the  sake  of  the  English,  yet  many 
of  them  soon  become  interested  in  Christian¬ 
ity  itself,  and  often  become  active  Christians. 

These  positions  are  open  now.  A  man  can 
begin  the  work  as  soon  as  he  reaches  Japan. 
Is  there  not  some  one  ready  to  come? 

Yours  in  His  service, 

P.  A.  Smith, 
Roy  Smith. 


DETAILS  IN  REGARD  TO  THE  POSI¬ 
TIONS  OF  GOVERNMENT  TEACH¬ 
ERS  IN  THE  SCHOOLS  OF  JAPAN 


First,  as  to  the  work  itself,  primarily,  of 
course,  it  is  the  teaching- of  the  English  lan¬ 
guage  in  much  the  same  way  that  Latin, 
French,  and  German  are  taught  in  our  Ameri¬ 
can  schools,  except  that  all  the  teaching-  is 
done  in  the  language  taught.  Conversation, 
Composition,  and  Reading  are  the  principal 
subjects,  though  Grammar  is  sometimes  asked 
for,  and  a  good  knowledge  of  English  Gram¬ 
mar  is  absolutely  essential.  The  range  of 
the  Composition  work  is  from  the  very  sim¬ 
plest  sentences  such  as  we  begin  with  in  our 
German  Composition  work,  to  the  best  of  the 
samples  sent  with  this*.  There  must  be,  in 
the  higher  circles,  some  acquaintance  with 
literature  and  a  knowledge  of  the  technicali¬ 
ties  of  Rhetoric  and  Composition.  There  is 
much  need  also  for  a  careful  knowledge  of 
the  manner  in  which  the  sounds  of  the  En- 


*See  Appendix  II. 


9 


glish  language  are  produced,  as  the  Japan¬ 
ese  is  so  meagre  in  its  number  of  sounds, and 
those  which  it  has  are  often  far  different  from 
ours.  The  student  must  often  be  taught 
how  to  produce  a  sound,  not  simply  by  giving 
the  sound  yourself,  but  by  teaching  him  how 
to  use  his  tongue,  lips,  and  throat  in  the  pro¬ 
per  manner. 

The  financial  side  of  the  question  shows 
but  few  advantages  or  disadvantages.  The 
expenses  of  getting  here  must  be  borne  by  the 
man  himself,  except  from  Yokohama  to  his 
place  of  work.  The  salaries  range  from 
$900  to  $1,200  per  year.  The  expense  of  liv¬ 
ing  is  about  $40  per  month,  for  a  single  man, 
and  $80  to  $90  per  month  for  a  married  man. 
There  is,  therefore,  no  special  advantage  in 
this  line,  though  a  man  can  live  very  comfort¬ 
ably  on  the  money  offered.  A  man  must  al¬ 
so  take  into  consideration  the  fact  that  he 
must  be  somewhat  more  careful  here  and 
should  not  run  on  so  small  a  margin  as  at 
home,  as  he  is  a  long  way  from  his  friends 
and  any  large  financial  assistance.  On  the 
other  hand,  one  can  have  more  conveniences, 
of  such  kinds  as  are  obtainable,  than  on  the 
same  salary  at  home.  Labor  is  cheap,  tho 
not  so  skilled  as  American  labor. 

The  religious  or  Christian  phase  of  this 
work  varies  more  than  any  other.  One  of  the 
greatest  features  of  this  is  the  prestige  which 
a  teacher  enjoys.  His  life  before  the  student 
counts  for  much  in  teaching  them  that  not  all 
foreigners,  who  are  not  missionaries,  are  a 
dissolute  lot.  The  lives  of  some  of  the  worse 

10 


than  heathen  foreigners  here  do  much  to  hin¬ 
der  Cl  ristianuy,  and  the  life  of  the  Christian 
teacher  can  do  much  to  counteract  this. 
The  principal  of  one  school  who  had  a  foreign 
teacher  of  the  wrong  kind,  when  he  got  rid  of 
him,  said  that  he  would  never  hire  another 
foreign  teacher  unless  he  was  a  Christian. 

The  active  or  aggressive  kind  of  work  is 
about  the  same  as  at  home, — Bible  classes  and 
personal  work,  with  an  occasional  chance, 
in  some  places,  to  speak  at  men’s  meetings 
in  English,  or  to  speak  at  general  religious 
meetings  through  an  interpreter.  These 
opportunities  develop  as  fast  as  a  man  can 
take  care  of  them,  inmost  cases.  Some  of  the 
men  use  interpreters  in  their  Bible  classes, 
and  some  do  not,  depending  upon  the  cir¬ 
cumstances  of  the  individual  case.  The 
personal  work  is  done  among  the  men  in  the 
Bible  classes*,  and  the  men  who  come  to 
the  house  to  learn  English  and  to  find 
out  about  foreign  customs.  These  men  may 
be  either  students  or  teachers,  if  the  man 
wishes  to  try  both.  As  at  home,  the  personal 
work  is  the  most  fruitful  branch  of  the  work 
in  its  direct  results,  f 

Never  let  any  man  say  that  this  work  is  not 
missionary  work.  The  Christian  English 
teacher  is,  in  general,  reaching  a  class  of 

♦•‘Every  little  while  a  new  man  shows  up,  and  wants  to 
learn  more  of  Christianity  and  wants  to  become  a 
Christian.  It  is  inspiring  to  think  of  the  depths  of 
spiritual  ignorance  from  which  these  men  are  climbing. 
We  teach,  and  talk,  and  God  moves  the  hearts  of  the 
men.”  From  letter  of  January  8,  1904,  from  P.  A.  S. 

fSee  Appendix  I. 


11 


men  whom  the  missionary  cannot  reach:}:,  and 
who  are  to  be  the  leading-  men  of  thercoming 
generation.  The  opportunity  is  as  large  as 
the  man  can  make  it,  for  there  is,  in  most 
cases,  almost  no  restriction  put  upon  reli¬ 
gious  teaching.  The  indirect  influence  of  the 
teacher  is  the  same  as  it  is  at  home,  except 
that  it  is  larger,  as  the  foreign  teacher  is  a 
more  marked  man  than  in  America. 

Among  the  advantages  to  the  individual 
may  be  counted  the  pleasure  of  seeing  the 
country.  Few  countries  in  the  world  can 
boast  of  finer  scenery  than  Japan,  or  of  more 
interesting  places  to  visit  and  see.  This  and 
the  experience  gained  by  three  or  four  years 
in  a  foreign  land  might  appeal  to  a  man  who 
does  not  care  to  devote  his  life  to  the  work,  or 
to  mission  work  of  any  kind,  but  who  is  an 
earnest  Christian.  Just  at  present,  Japan  is 
the  center  of  the  world’s  interest,  and  the  Far 
East  is  probably  to  be  the  field  of  action 
during  the  next  generation. 

The  influence  of  such  work  can  not  but  be 
broadening,  as  it  gives  a  man  a  far  larger  con¬ 
ception  of  what  sort  of  lives  and  people  the 
big  word  “humanity”  means.  There  is  a 
certain  uplift  also,  which  comes  from  the 
reflex  influence  upon  one's  self  in  the  uplift¬ 
ing  of  the  men  around  him.  It  is  greater 
than  the  same  influence  at  home,  just  in  the 

f'The  Missionary  to  I  hern  is  somewhat  of  an  intruder. 
The  government  teacher  is  their  teacher,  and  they  rec¬ 
ognize  that  what  time  he  gives  them  outside  of  his  reg¬ 
ular  teaching  hours  is  voluntary  and  because  he  is  in¬ 
terested  in  them.”  From  tetter  of  April  12,  1904 ,  from 
R.  S. 


12 


same  proportion  as  the  distance  which  a  man 
must  be  lifted  is  greater  than  that  of  a  man 
in  America,  who  has  had  more  or  less  Chris¬ 
tian  teaching  all  his  life. 

For  the  help  of  these  teachers  there  is  held 
every  year  a  Summer  School,  somewhat  like 
the  Conference  at  Lake  Geneva,  for  a  week  or 
ten  days.  There  are  three  sessions  a  day, 
one  of  which  is  given  to  methods  of  teaching 
and  two  to  religious  work.  Besides  these 
meetings  there  are  many  opportunities  for 
personal  interviews;  far  more  than  at  Lake 
Geneva. 

In  order  that  men  may  not  look  upon  this 
as  too  much  of  an  easy  place  we  will  enumer¬ 
ate  a  few  of  the  disadvantages.  The  first  is 
the  one  common  to  all  mission  work — the  lack 
of  society,  and  sometimes  complete  isolation 
from  all  except  Japanese  people.  The  num¬ 
ber  of  English  and  American  people  in  the 
cities  varies  from  six  to  ten  thousand  in  Yoko¬ 
hama  to  none  at  all  in  some  places.  Of 
course,  the  isolation  in  a  place  where  there 
are  a  few  foreigners  is  not  hard  for  a  man 
who  does  not  crave  society  pleasures.  He  can 
and  does  make  friends  with  the  two  or  three 
or  dozen  missionaries,  as  the  case  may  be  and 
is  very  comfortable.  But  the  man  who  goes 
to  the  post  where  he  is  the  only  foreigner  in 
the  city  finds  it  a  lonely  life  and  a  hard  one.* 

One  of  the  effects  upon  a  man’s  spiritual  life 
is  that  of  deadening.  And  th°n  there  is  a  grad- 

*"lt  is  a  great  pnvijege  to  Lein  tins  work,  it  s  o:ie- 
some,  at  times,  and  a  fellow  gets  a  little  blue,  at  times, 
but  it’s  a  great  privilege,  anyway.”— From  letter  of  bee. 
12,  1903,  from  R.  S. 


13 


ual  lowering  of  a  man’s  ideals,  because  of  the 
low  ideals  of  the  people  around  him,  and  the 
lack  of  stimulus  that  comes  from  friendship 
and  close  contact  with  strong  high  Christian 
characters.  Moreover,  he  does  not  hear  ser¬ 
mons  or  talks  in  his  own  language,  and  for  a 
long  time  understands  nothing  of  the  Japanese 
preaching,  if  there  is  any  which  he  can  hear. 
All  of  these  things  must  be  manfully  met  and 
fought,  or  a  man  will  find  himself  gradually 
drifting  away  and  getting  spiritually  cold  and 
dead.  Of  the  temptations  to  the  more  heinous 
sins  we  can  only  say  that  they  are  strong  and 
fierce,  and  a  man  must  be  prepared  to  meet  al¬ 
most  anything.  Japan  is  honey-combed  with 
the  social  evil,  and  the  teacher  is  not  always 
expected  to  restrain  himself  from  even  the 
most  loathsome  forms  of  vice.  Moreover, 
drinking  to  excess  is  common  at  many  teachers’ 
social  affairs  which  he  must  attend.  This 
is  not  always  the  case.  In  the  Hiroshima 
Higher  Normal  School  no  drinking  is  ever  in¬ 
dulged  in  at  any  meeting  of  teachers  or  stu¬ 
dents.  This,  however,  is  exceptional.  In  such 
surroundings  one  can  realize  the  danger  a  man 
is  in  if  he  yields  to  the  deadening  influence 
spoken  of  before,  and  allows  his  spiritual  life 
and  ideals  to  weaken.  Taken  all  in  all,  there 
is  really  nothing  for  a  man  to  gain  personally 
from  coming  out  to  these  posts.  His  loss  and 
danger  will  just  about  compensate  for  the  ex¬ 
perience  and  the  gain. 

You  may  wish  to  know  something  about  who 
should  come.  First  of  all,  certainly  not  a  man 
who  is  not  a  Christian  in  the  highest  sense,— an 

14 


active,  earnest  Christian.  The  breaking  down 
of  non-Christian  and  of  weak  Christian  men 
who  are  sent  to  these  .posts  or  elsewhere  in 
government  service  or  in  business,  under  the 
temptations  which  they  meet,  shows  the  neces¬ 
sity  of  a  strong  Christian  character  in  the  men 
who  come. 

Again,  no  man  who  is  not  reasonably  strong 
physically  should  come.  You  have,  perhaps, 
heard  the  climate  of  Japan  described  as  being 
rather  debilitating,  and  that  a  person  cannot 
do  as  much  work  here  as  in  America.  This  is 
probably  true,  though  we  have  never  felt  bet¬ 
ter  in  our  lives  than  since  we  came  here.  A 
Japanese  house  is  likely  to  be  rather  full  of 
draughts,  and  to  have  many  cracks,  and,  as  a 
consequence,  in  the  North  it  is  hard  to  keep 
off  rheumatism  and  similar  diseases  if  one  is 
inclined  to  them.  We  do  not  mean  by  this 
that  one  must  be  a  gaint  in  order  to  stand  the 
climate,  but  simply  to  show  that  a  man  must 
not  come  as  a  missionary  did  last  year,  all  tired 
out  from  seminary  work  expecting  to  recuper¬ 
ate  here,  and  must  not  come  with  any  chronic 
disease  expecting  the  climate  to  cure  him. 
The  missionary  referred  to  had  to  return  in 
less  than  six  months  in  order  to  keep  from  los¬ 
ing  his  mind.  The  man  of  average  strength 
and  health,  if  careful  not  to  overwork  at  first, 
can  keep  just  as  well  as  at  home  and  need  not 
fear. 

The  man  who  expects  to  stay  only  one  year 
in  Japan  had  better  stay  at  home.  The  Asso¬ 
ciation  and  the  schools,  also,  want  men  who  will 
stay  at  least  two  years,  and  much  prefer  those 

15 


who  will  stay  there.  Of  course,  better  still  is  the 
man  who  expects  to  give  his  life  to  the  work 
and  to  make  a  life  business  and  a  life  study  of 
it.  These  men  will  naturally  have  some  pref¬ 
erence  over  the  short  time  men  in  the  selection 
of  positions. 

The  man  who  expects  some  day  to  take  up 
mission  work  should  not  hesitate  to  come  if 
the  way  opens.  There  is  perhaps  no  better 
opportunity  for  a  man  to  work  into  a  mission 
than  through  one  of  these  places.  This  year 
at  least  one  man  goes  into  a  mission  from  one 
of  these  places,  and  others  have  had  offers  from 
missions  and  have  refused  because  of  the 
opportunities  opened  in  the  places  where  they 
were.  This  all  applies  with  a  special  force  to 
the  man  who  wants  to  work  in  Japan;  but  two 
or  three  years  here  for  a  young  man  would  not 
be  at  all  bad  for  a  Chinese  or  Korean  mission¬ 
ary.  We  are  all  of  us  more  closely  in  touch 
with  the  missionaries  than  with  any  other  class 
of  people  here  except  our  own  students,  and  in 
all  cases  we  work  hand  in  hand  with  them  in 
our  Christian  work,  so  the  step  to  the  mission 
is  simply  from  lay  to  direct  Christian  work. 

Roy  Smith, 

P.  A.  Smith. 

Chofu,  Nagato,  Japan,  April  7,  1904. 


16 


APPENDIX  I. 

( Extract  from  a  Letter  of  October  II,  1903,  from  P.  A.  S. ) 


“Promptly  at  three  o’clock  (Sunday),  my 
hour  to  begin  private  talks  with  my  boys,  two 
appeared,  the  same  ones  who  were  here  last 
Sunday.  One  is  pretty  well  along  and  ready 
to  be  instructed  for  baptism.  We  talked  most¬ 
ly  today  on  Matthew  4,  as  he  had  difficulty  in 
understanding  it.  Toward  the  last  I  led  him 
on  to  the  subject  of  prayer.  He  said  he  did 
not  know  really  how  to  pray.  He  prayed 
when  he  found  things  difficult  to  understand, 
but  that  was  all.  I  went  over  the  simple 
foundations  of  prayer, — i.  e.  asking  as  we  do  of 
our  earthly  father,  etc.,— and  then  we  knelt  and 
he  prayed  aloud  and  I  followed.  Just  before 
they  were  ready  to  go  the  other  man,  who  is 
just  beginning  to  evince  an  interest  in  Chris¬ 
tianity,  said  ‘If  I  pray  here,  can  God  help  my 
father  who  is  at  home?’  That  was  easily  an¬ 
swered,  of  course.  Then  came  the  question, 
‘If  I  die  a  Christian,  will  I  see  my  mother  who 
is  dead  and  was  not  a  Christian?’  There  were 
tears  in  his  eyes  as  he  asked,  and  I  could  only 
explain  the  passage  about  the  servant  who 


knew  his  Lord’s  will  and  the  one  who  did  not. 
Just  as  they  were  starting,  the  first  one  said, 
‘I  feel  stronger  in  my  heart,’  and  then  added, 
‘I  feel  as  if  I  am  changing  in  some  way.’ 
May  God  grant  that  this  change  may  be  the 
light  of  the  Holy  Spirit  breaking  in  on  a  soul 
that  is  groping  for  the  truth.  These  two  are 
only  samples  of  many  more  that  are  struggling 
to  know  the  real  truth.” 


(Extract  from  Letter  of  February  21,  1904,  from  P.  A.  S.) 


“It  might  be  helpful  for  me  to  state  some  of 
the  questions  that  come  up  to  me  to  be  an¬ 
swered.  I  can’t  state  them  all,  but  I  will  give 
you  a  few  I  have  had  lately. 

Why  do  you  believe  in  the  Divinity  of  Christ? 

What  do  you  mean  when  you  say  that 
Christ  was  the  Son  of  God? 

What  are  the  real  essentials  of  Christianity? 

Explain  miracles. 

Is  baptism  a  prime  necessity? 

Why  is  it  so  necessary? 

What  do  you  mean  by  ‘keeping  the  Sab¬ 
bath’? 

Where  did  Christ  come  from  to  earth? 

Where  is  heaven? 

Why  are  there  sects  among  Christians? 

When  did  the  sects  begin  to  spring  up? 

Is  every  word  of  the  Bible  absolutely  true? 
If  not,  why  not,  since  it  is  God’s  word? 

How  do  we  know  the  Gospels  are  true,  even 
after  we  grant  the  existence  of  an  historical 
personage  named  Jesus  Christ? 

These  may  give  you  a  little  idea  of  some  of 

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the  quesitons  a  man  is  called  upon  to  answer. 
I  myself,  so  far,  have  found  none  who  needed 
to  be  taught  belief  in  God,  but  many  have  sim¬ 
ply  a  belief  in  one  great  supreme  being  and 
nothing  else.’’ 


APPENDIX  II. 

( Composition  of  T.  Hasegauua) 

The  Most  Important  Event  in  the  Pres¬ 
ent  War. 


Our  long  expected  Japan  Russia  war  broke 
out  at  last.  A  hot  battle  was  fought  outside 
Port  Arthur  of  late.  I  will  tell  something  about 
it. 

At  midnight  on  the  eighth  of  February  our 
torpedo-boats  sailed  secretly  toward  the  Rus¬ 
sian  squadron  lying  outside  Port  Arthur.  They 
came  so  near  the  enemy  that  they  could  dis¬ 
tinguish  the  seamen  of  the  enemy  moving 
about  on  deck,  not  being  seen  by  them.  But 
the  enemy  discovered  them  at  last,  and  began 
to  fire  on  them.  Still  our  plucky  blue-jackets, 
never  fearing,  advanced  a  little  farther,  and 
discharged  torpedoes  at  what  they  considered 
the  largest  of  the  enemy’s  warships.  On  their 
way  home  they  could  see  several  of  the  en¬ 
emy’s  ships  were  disabled. 

When  daylight  came,  it  was  found  that  what 
had  been  torpedoed  by  our  boats  the  night  be¬ 
fore  were  two  battleships — one  of  which  was 

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the  flagship  of  the  enemy’s  squadron — and  one 
cruiser.  But  our  fleet,  not  being  satisfied  with 
this,  attacked  the  enemy  once  more.  The  war¬ 
ships  of  the  enemy  were  nothing  fearful  for 
our  fleet,  but  the  batteries  on  the  hill, 
which  continued  to  pour  a  hot  fire  upon  our 
fleet,  were  very  frightful.  Our  brave  officers 
and  seamen,  however,  fought  very  hard,  untill 
four  of  the  enemy’s  men-of-war  were  at  last 
severely  damaged  by  our  balls.  Our  fleet,  too, 
suffered  some  injuries,  but  they  were  very 
slight. 

Thus  our  enemy  has  already  sustained  asignal 
defeat  at  sea.  It  is  said  that  the  warships,  which 
were  torpedoed  or  damaged  by  our  fleet,  have 
been  crippled  for  any  further  immediate  ser¬ 
vice,  so  that  the  supremacy  at  sea  may  be  well 
said  to  have  fallen  into  our  hands.  On  land 
also,  it  will  not  be  very  long  before  we  shall 
hear  the  soldiers,  who  are  now  staying  here, 
will  fight  bravely  in  Manchuria  and  gain  a 
glorious  victory. 

Thursday,  March  17,  1901. 

Note— After  two  years  in  a  higher  school.  An  aver¬ 
age  composition  from  this  class.  These  men  will  do 
better  work  before  the  end  of  their  four  years  with  us. 
-P.  A.  S. 


MUNHALL  PRINTING  HOUSE,  CHAMPAIGN,  ILLINOIS 


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